Arabian princess appears in court on trafficking charge

SANTA ANA Authorities and advocates have for years decried the conditions of domestic servants among the vast Saudi Arabian royal family; on Thursday, a princess appeared on a human trafficking charge before an Orange County judge.

The arraignment of 42-year-old Meshael Alayban was continued to July 29 as she appeared in a blue jail jumpsuit, speaking through an Arabic interpreter and at one point softly answering “Yes, your honor.”

Prosecutors accuse her of forcing a Kenyan woman to work as a domestic servant since May in Irvine, taking away her passport and not allowing her to leave. While her attorney described what transpired as a contract dispute over hours worked and wages paid, District Attorney Tony Rackauckas likened Alayban's actions to slavery.

“It has been 150 years since the Emancipation Proclamation and slavery has been unlawful in the United States – and certainly in California all this time – and it is disappointing to see it in use here,” Rackauckas said at a news conference following the court hearing.

Prosecutors said Alayban is one of six wives of Prince Abdulrahman bin Nasser bin Abdulaziz al Saud; family trees show him as a grandson of the first king of Saudi Arabia and a nephew of the current ruler. The large royal family includes an estimated 7,000 princes, who are often government officials and businessmen in their day-to-day lives.

Various branches of the family have in the past been in trouble with the law regarding their personal servants. In 2002, a princess was arrested in Florida after her Indonesian maid accused her of abuse. Another prince was jailed in 2010 in Britain and later convicted of sexually abusing and killing his manservant, who was originally from Sudan.

Alayban, who prosecutors said is in the United States on a vacation visa, was released from jail on Thursday after the Saudi government posted the $5 million bail, officials from the Saudi Arabian consulate in West Los Angeles said.

As a condition of her bail, she surrendered her passport, prosecutors said, and is required to wear a GPS tracking device. Authorities said she is also prohibited from leaving the county without the court's permission.

Alayban was moved from the jail to the courthouse Thursday evening, where the judge ordered the installation of a GPS tracking device on Alayban.

At about 6 p.m., an official from the consulate drove a black BMW out of the court's staff parking lot below the courthouse. It appeared that Alayban was in the backseat, flanked by two bodyguards who were covering her with a tan-colored blanket.

A ‘SLAVE' IN IRVINE

Attorney Steve Baric, who is representing the 30-year-old Kenyan woman, described his client as a strong woman who was overwhelmed by the last 48 hours.

After the approximately 15-minute hearing in a packed courtroom with a bank of media cameras snapping pictures and taking videos, Baric said his client was essentially a “slave.”

“She wasn't able to freely move about … she was intimidated,” Baric said. “She was overworked, she was underpaid.” He declined to discuss details of what authorities have said prompted her to seek work through an agency: to pay for her young daughter's medical care.

Baric added the woman was “extremely happy to be free.”

In March 2012, the woman contracted through an agency in Kenya to work for Alayban's family in Saudi Arabia, authorities said. However, once she arrived, her passports and her contract were taken by Alayban, authorities allege.

Alayban is accused of employing the woman to work in Saudi Arabia to cook, clean, iron and do laundry and other household chores in the palace. Prosecutors say Alayban made the woman work long hours, seven days a week, for $220 a month instead of the agreed-upon $1,600 – conditions that continued when Alayban brought her to the U.S. on May 6.

The woman escaped on Tuesday, getting on an early bus with a suitcase and pamphlet from the American Embassy in Saudi Arabia, authorities said. After telling a passenger about her situation, the passenger contacted police, and by 10 p.m. Tuesday detectives served a search warrant at the condo. Alayban was arrested about two hours later.

Four female workers from the Philippines were taken from the home by authorities, who are continuing their investigation.

SILENT VICTIMS

In many cases, people who are trafficked do not come forward because they fear deportation, said Kirsten Kreymann of the Public Law Center in Santa Ana.

The center has provided legal aid to 230 victims of human trafficking in Orange County, and in the last few years has worked on several cases involving those working for wealthy Saudi families in vacation homes, Kreymann said.

“Human trafficking is like what domestic violence was 20 years ago,” she said. “People know it's a problem; they're just not fully educated about it.”

Victims often come from countries with poor economies and few employment opportunities, said Sandra Morgan, director of the Global Center for Women and Justice at Costa Mesa's Vanguard University.

“It makes it very attractive when you can find a job outside (the country) so you can support your family,” she said.

Once hired, Morgan said victims are pushed into modern-day slavery through force, fraud and coercion. Regarding the allegations in Alayban's case, Morgan said that offering the victim a contract, then negating it, would be fraud. Taking a servant's passport away is a form of coercion seen in many human-trafficking cases, she said.

“I was very impressed by the (Kenyan woman),” she said. “She understood this was not right and spoke up.”

In Saudi Arabia, it is not abnormal to hire foreigners for inexpensive labor, and the country's government has not actively monitored human trafficking issues, according to the U.S. Department of State's 2011 Trafficking in Persons Report.

“The Government of Saudi Arabia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so,” the report said.

NO GOVERNMENT CONNECTION

Alayban and her husband did not have any direct connection with the Saudi government and did not have diplomatic immunity, said Eddie Vasquez of the State Department's Near East Affairs division.

Though prosecutors initially wanted $20 million bail, Alayban's attorney told the court she did not pose a flight risk as her visits to Irvine sometimes lasted six months. She had lived in Orange County off and on since she was a girl, he said, and was in the area with her children.

Property records show that a woman who signed her name as Meshael Ayban owns three neighboring condominiums in the luxury complex known as Central Park West. The units were all bought between late 2010 and 2012 and are worth about $1.7 million, the records show. She did not file any documents in Orange County indicating that she took out a loan for the properties.

One document names her husband as Abdulrahman Alsaud. Other documents show his son, Saud Bin Abdulrahman Al Saud, owns two other condominiums on another floor of the same building, worth $1.4 million.

Meshael Ayban turned over at least some of the household responsibilities to an attorney and her “head of security,” the documents show. She authorized them in 2010 to purchase the three condos and oversee their interior decoration, any renovations and all other related activities and management.

The building includes about 100 units, with most containing two bedrooms in a 1,200- to 1,400-square-foot floor plan. The Kenyan woman told authorities she performed domestic work for eight people living in four units within the building.

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